USTelecom: DOJ Should Participate in Cox Copyright Appeal
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2024 decision that Cox Communications was liable for contributory copyright infringement "poses an existential threat" to federal efforts to close the digital divide, USTelecom told DOJ's Solicitor General's Office last week. In a…
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letter Friday, USTelecom urged the solicitor general to file a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to grant Cox Communications' cert petition that seeks to reverse the appellate court decision. In addition, USTelecom said the 4th Circuit decision serves as "a direct threat to the internet service providers investing in and building broadband networks" to close the digital divide. Broadband providers "focus on connecting customers to the internet; they do nothing to encourage, nor do they benefit from, rogue users’ infringement of content owners’ copyrights." Music labels suing Cox "wish to turn broadband providers into their own internet content police." Moreover, it said, copyright holders' threats of massive lawsuits for not terminating internet access "are chilling." Absent a reversal of the 4th Circuit decision, "broadband providers have no choice but strict adherence to content owners’ increasingly draconian demands, taking thousands of households and businesses offline or otherwise face crushing liability."